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The paper said the Israeli officials specifically warned their
counterparts
in Washington that "large-scale terrorist attacks on highly
visible targets
on the American mainland were imminent." They offered no
specific information
about targets, but they did link the plot to Afghanistan-based
terrorist
Osama bin Laden, and they told the Americans there were "strong
grounds" for
suspecting Iraqi involvement.
A US administration official
told the paper that it was "quite credible" that
the CIA did not heed the
Mossad warning: "It has a history of being
over-cautious about Israeli
information." But the official noted that "if
this is true, then the refusal
to take it seriously will mean heads will
roll."
In another development,
the Sunday Times reported that an account at a branch
of Barclays Bank
in the London district of Notting Hill was used by a
suspected bin Laden
lieutenant to finance and disseminate Bin Laden's fatwas
(religious rulings)
and to maintain contacts with various elements in bin
Laden's global network.
The account was held by Saudi dissident Khalid al-Fawwaz, who is currently
being held in custody awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings to
the
United States on charges of conspiring with bin Laden to murder Americans.
The Barclays account is understood to form part of a web of bank accounts
and
front companies used by bin Laden to underwrite his Al Qaida terror
network.
Court documents link Fawwaz to a Bin Laden fatwa calling for
the death of
American civilians "anywhere in the world they can be found,"
which was faxed
directly to him by Bin Laden.
Fawwaz was personally appointed
by bin Laden to set up and run the
London-based Advice and Reformation
Committee. The organization was
ostensibly dedicated to war-relief work,
but British and US officials now
believe it was in fact a component in
Bin Laden's terror network.
Fawwaz is also thought to have been directly
involved in the terrorist cell
that perpetrated the simultaneous bombings
of the US embassies in Dar es
Salaam and Nairobi in 1998. More than 200
people died in those attacks.